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Blue Jays finish strong: Hillerud 10th in all-around, bars

Jamestown senior Abbie Conlon competes in the floor exercise at the state gymnastics meet Saturday in Bismarck. (Tom Stromme / For the Sun)

Unfortunately for the Jamestown gymnastics team, Saturday was individual day.

As a team, Jamestown finished better on the second day of the state meet, held at Bismarck Century High School. Team scores were not kept, but coach Dave Tews said the Blue Jays would have finished fourth. They were fifth on team day on Friday.

Three-time all-around champion Acacia Fossum, a sophomore for Dickinson, finished fourth overall, as Bismarck’s Kaylee Keller took home top honors in the all-around. Jessica Gabriel of Century, the senior athlete of the year, won the vault and bars, while Fargo Davies’ Kiara Bock was the balance-beam champion. Fossum won the floor.

Despite the presence of Bismarck High and Century at the top of each event, the two teams actually fell out of the top five, team-wise. They finished in the top five on Friday.

Jamestown was paced by sophomore Erin Hillerud, who capped a strong season with 10th place in the all-around (35.7). Tenth place on the bars (8.833) and 12th on the floor (9.267) aided the all-around effort by Hillerud, who became the Blue Jays’ top gymnast over the last half of the season.

The loss of former senior athlete of the year Alex Lind to graduation last season left a big hole to replace, namely at the top.

“(Erin’s) goal is to compete at that level,” Tews said. “She’s getting there. She’s pretty hard on herself. She’s trying to step up and be that person.”

The Jays had to go without junior Jenna Stilwell most of the season, and junior Jayden Diemert wasn’t able to participate at state. Both suffered injuries.

Seniors Kaiann Arellano, Glynna Godfrey, Jane Tang and Abbie Conlon graduate, but Tews is excited about the return of Hillerud, his two juniors and everybody else.

“Maybe I’ll have to raise our expectations a little more next year,” Tews said. “We’ll be losing some good seniors. But if we can get everyone healthy ... Hopefully, we can get these scores again. It’d be nice to start out this way and then see what we can build on.”